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SAN FRANCISCO – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s regional administrator, Shawn Garvin, has recommended that his agency veto the Clean Water Act permit for the Spruce No. 1 Mine in Logan County, West Virginia. The Spruce mine is one of the largest mountaintop removal mines ever proposed in Central Appalachia, and would result in the destruction of 2,278 acres of temperate rainforest and the burying of 7.5 miles of streams in the Spruce Fork sub-watershed.

Following is a statement by Amanda Starbuck of the Rainforest Action Network (RAN):

“The science is clear that mountaintop removal is harming water resources in real and measurable ways. We hope the EPA is going to use its full authority under the Clean Water Act to protect Appalachia’s drinking water and resist the enormous pressure coming from the coal industry.”